What the Hell?

 Nobody gets up one fine Spring morning and says: "Wow, is my life great.  I'm healthy with a wonderful spouse and beautiful kids.  Got a nice house and two new cars.  My career is on fire and I'm well liked at work - my boss is even eyeing me for a promotion.  What the hell . . . . I think I'll go to Alcoholics Anonymous."

If you're wondering if you have a drinking problem you probably have a drinking problem.  People who aren't alcoholics don't sit around wondering if they have a drinking problem.

I'm a reformed A.A. dabbler.  I dabbled when I came in.  I pursued the half-measures recovery technique.  I did as little as I possibly could and drank; then did a little, tiny bit more and drank; I did this over and over and over again, drinking each time, staying sober a little longer each time, until I was All In.  I was out of ideas.  I knew I needed to be doing what you folks were saying to do.

I was on a cruise once where a passenger that I had gotten to know came down with a GI tract infection.  On a cruise ship the crew responds to an illness of this type in roughly the same manner as they would to someone found strapping on a suicide belt full of nails in one of the communal bathrooms.  They confined him to his room and threatened to eject him from the ship at the next port if he tried to leave for any reason whatever.  I could not overstate how upset I would have been had this happened to me.  He shrugged his shoulders.  He was fine.  He got a lot of reading done.  See?  There are people who naturally make the best of an unwelcome situation.  Freaks.  Total freaks.  I would have been planning a break-out.  I would have taken the gamble.

Anonymity is humility.

Service is freedom.